


What Keeps You Down

by sister_wolf



Category: DCU (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Tim is obsessive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-10-10
Updated: 2006-10-10
Packaged: 2017-10-12 03:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/120409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sister_wolf/pseuds/sister_wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything is falling apart, but Tim still has a plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Keeps You Down

**Author's Note:**

> For [](http://lazar-grrl.livejournal.com/profile)[**lazar_grrl**](http://lazar-grrl.livejournal.com/), who requested: "Tim, Bart, rage." Spoilers for OYL _Teen Titans_ and _Flash_.

From the beginning, Tim had realized that keeping his experiments in the sub-sub-basement of Titans Tower posed a slight but real risk that various members of the Titans might discover his hidden laboratory. Accordingly, he had devised tactics to deal with each remaining Titan.

For Vic, an appeal to his sense of friendship and loyalty; for Cassie, the promise that he _would_ bring back Kon, whatever it took; for Raven (before she left the team, that is), the philosophical question of what, precisely, made up a soul... and as for the younger Titans, he figured that a raised eyebrow and a little ominous looming should do it. (Tim was very fond of the improved looming capabilities of the redesigned Robin cape.)

What he hadn't planned on was Bart.

"HeyTimthereyouareittookme _forever_ tofindyou!" Bart blurred to a stop in the middle of the laboratory. "Whoah--what _is_ thisstuff?"

With a keystroke, all of the incriminating data disappeared from the laboratory's computer screens-- but even a single keystroke was much too slow, when dealing with a Flash. Bart seemed to disappear from the center of the room and reappear next to Tim in the time it took for his keyboard to finish clicking.

The expression on Bart's face said that he'd seen _enough_ of the data before it disappeared to have a pretty good idea of what exactly Tim was doing in the Titans' sub-sub-basement. "Tell me this isn't what I think it is."

Swiveling his chair around to face Bart, Tim crossed his arms and leaned back, using the movement as a delaying tactic while he formulated a plan for dealing with Bart. If this had been the old Bart, Tim could have used an appeal to Bart's friendship mixed with a little subtle manipulation of Bart's inferiority complex. But with this new Bart-- a Bart who'd spent three years lost in the Speed Force, a Bart wearing the Flash's uniform as comfortably as if it were his own... Tim really wasn't sure.

"It's what you think it is." Matter-of-factly admitting the truth had always tended to take the wind out of Bart's sails.

"You're trying to re-clone Kon." Bart sounded calmly incredulous, as if the very idea was preposterous. Tim's hands clenched inside his gauntlets.

"Yes."

"Tim..." Bart pushed back his cowl. In some ways (the golden eyes, the messy brown hair), Bart still looked exactly the same; in others (the width of his jawline, the pronounced slant of his cheekbones) he looked like a stranger to Tim, more like Bart's long-lost older brother than, well, _Bart_. "It's not going to work."

"Yes, it will. I just need more time. I'm getting close to solving the problem of the protein binding--" Tim shook his head, handwaving the rest of his explanation. He was fairly sure that Bart didn't _really_ want to hear the nitty-gritty details of making human and Kryptonian genetic materials talk to each other.

"No, dude, I _saw_ your data. _How_ many of your attempts have failed, now?"

Tim's eyes flickered to the large glass tube at the center of his lab. "That doesn't matter. Every failed attempt teaches me more. I'm getting closer every time."

"You know, you're starting to sound a little mad-scientisty there, Tim." Neither of them laughed-- but then again, Bart wasn't really joking. "But the thing is... even if you _do_ manage to clone him, it won't be _Kon_."

"Why not? I've re-created the original experimental conditions perfectly. I broke into an old Cadmus installation and salvaged what I could of their set-up. I've got the original hardware _and_ the data files they used for his knowledge implants." Tim leaned forward and spread his hands, trying to make his voice sound as sincere as possible. "I can make this work, Bart. I just need more _time_."

Bart started pacing, a little faster than a normal human but not yet blurring. "I'm sure you _think_ you can. And maybe you will, who knows. But that's not the point. You can't-- you can't just _make_ another Kon," he said, gesturing wildly. "A person is more than just genes and knowledge. We're _more_ than the sum of our parts, and if you'd think about it, you'd _know_ that."

Tim swiveled his chair away, bringing the monitoring systems back on line with a few keystrokes. "Was there something you needed, Bart? Because I had the 'existence of the soul' conversation earmarked for Raven, actually."

"Tim, goddammit! Would you just _listen_ to me," Bart snapped, swiveling Tim's chair back around. " _Kon was my friend too_ , okay? You're not the only one who misses him--"

"No, but I'm the only one who stands a reasonable chance of bringing him back."

"This is _wrong_. This is even wronger than what Cassie tried--"

Tim stood up, shoving his chair back abruptly. It banged into his desk, sounding strangely loud in the hushed quiet of the underground lab. "And where exactly have _you_ been all this time, Bart? Trying to fit into Wally's boots in Keystone? Playing at factory worker, like you're a normal person? _Anything_ but being here, dealing with Kon's death, like the rest of us."

"I wasn't..." Uncertain and guilty, Bart suddenly looked sixteen again. "There were _reasons_ why I couldn't come back to the team. I wasn't trying to avoid--"

"You're not a Titan anymore, Bart," Tim said evenly. "You don't know what it was like. You weren't _here_."

"Okay." Bart crossed his arms, nodding his head. "You're right. I wasn't here. But-- that doesn't mean that what you're doing here is _right_."

"What are you going to do? Report me to the Justice League? You may not have heard this out in Keystone, but the League has been dissolved." Tim watched Bart carefully. If Bart decided to tell Batman, Tim was going to have to activate the Tower's anti-speedster defenses-- something he didn't especially want to do, considering that he wasn't sure how much damage it would do to Bart. But it was imperative that his project remained secret from Batman. At least for now. He just needed more _time_.

"No," Bart said. Tim relaxed minutely. "I'm going to tell Cyborg. This is Titans Tower, and Kon was a Titan. This is a Titans matter. Vic and Gar--" Bart stumbled over his words. "Vic can decide what to do about your lab."

"Fine. You can let yourself out." Tim pointedly turned his back on Bart, sitting down at his desk and booting up a program to back up all of his data. He'd need to move quickly to get all of his essential data and equipment moved over to the abandoned Cadmus lab he'd found in Nevada before Cyborg could confiscate it all "for his own good."

"Tim..." Tim could hear Bart's footsteps come closer and then pause, shuffling uncertainly. "I'm sorry I wasn't here, but I'm here now and... I care about you, Tim. I'm really worried about you. I don't think this is _healthy_."

Tim said nothing, typing steadily. After a few minutes, he heard the familiar _whoosh_ of Bart speeding out of the room.

Tim paused, rubbing his hands across his face and pressing down on his eyelids with the heels of his hands for a few seconds. He took a deep breath and then continued typing.

He had work to do.


End file.
